The Turów coal mine is located in Poland’s region of Upper Lusatia, near Czech and German borders. The negative impact of mining, such as noise and dust, thus also trouble Czech citizens, mainly in areas near Frýdlant and Hrádek nad Nisou. Besides that, the mine causes a specific problem. As it is very deep, water from its surroundings runs down into it and people across the border are witnessing a considerable decrease of water in their wells and in the landscape.
In the Turów mine, lignite is mined and subsequently it is burnt in a nearby power station of the same name. The current mine is going to be soon be exhausted soon, but its owner, the PGE company, wants to continue with mining. It has applied for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for its plan to expand the mine and the power plant.
Turów mine
The EIA process is a cross-border one in this case as the expanded mine would probably have even bigger negative effects on the Czech and German neighbours. The edge of the expanded mine would be just several hundred meters away from the Czech village of Uhelná.
Nearby Czech villages and towns in the Frýdlant area are already facing a lack of groundwater, and the wells and streams are drying out. If the mining is expanded, draining off will continue, according to experts. This might result in a serious lack of water for people’s use as well as for agriculture and industry and in the landscape in general.
The PGE company does not feel responsible for the problems with water, and so the Czech Government commissioned the Czech Geological Service with a project which will examine the situation and also prepare a crisis scenario of building water pipes to bring water from the Souš or Josefův důl reservoirs across the whole Jizerské hory protected landscape area. However, it is not clear whether this solution is feasible at all, and it would certainly not guarantee a sufficient amount of water for the whole region. The only way of preventing this possible disaster is to avoid the expansion of the Turów mine.